Kevin Durant played down a blazing row with Phoenix Suns coach Mike Budenholzer and insisted it was due to the pair’s desperation to “right this ship and win basketball games”.
Durant and Budenholzer clashed during a timeout in the first quarter of the Suns’ 119-117 win over the Los Angeles Clippers Tuesday with the former pulling his arm away from the coach while exchanging heated words.
It immediately went viral and added to the narrative that all was not well in Phoenix with the team having lost 11 of their previous 14 games.
🚨MUST SEE🚨Here’s the FULL VIDEO exchange with Kevin Durant and Mike Budenholzer…
Bud grabs KD arm.. KD pulls it away… what the broadcast DID NOT show you — after the TV timeout, our camera caught KD tapping Bud to talk. @12SportsAZ pic.twitter.com/9tyWmcm1G1
— Cameron Cox (@CamCox12) March 5, 2025
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Kevin Durant says win will help brush row ‘under the rug’
But Durant hit back after the game, saying: “That’s what usually happens when you don’t know the dynamics of the relationship.
“You catch something on TV, you get a quote and now you pushing that narrative as if me and Bud don’t do that s— all the time. We [are] competitive as two individuals who want to see things done the right way, and sometimes my way ain’t the way that Bud want to do it and vice versa.
“He allows me as a player on the team, a veteran on the team, to voice my opinion. If we both didn’t care, we would never have stuff like that, you know what I’m saying?
“So I’m glad that the win is going to sweep all of that stupid stuff under the rug. Because people couldn’t wait. Even some people in Phoenix, in here, couldn’t wait to run with that and say, ‘This is the reason why the team ain’t playing well, because of that specific thing.’ But come on man, that shows that me and Bud really care about trying to right this ship and trying to win basketball games.”
Suns hit back thanks to KD
Whatever was said eventually worked as the Suns hit back from a 19-point deficit at the start of the final quarter to complete the largest fourth-quarter comeback in franchise history.
Durant was key, scoring 19 of his 34 points in the final 12 minutes after demanding more energy from the crowd.
He added: “I mean, just looking around after we were down 20, it looked like they were having a terrible time, and I hate putting that type of product on the court.
“I know we should focus on the game and focus on the game plan and not look into the crowd and not engage with the crowd, keep it professional. All that s— they tell us. But I survey the crowd and see, because we need them, we need that energy. So I looked around and it just looked dead and only way to spark it up is to make some plays. See the ball go through the rim, and we did.”
One game at a time, says Durant
The win moved Phoenix to 29-33. It’s not what they envisaged at the start of the season but they remain three games behind the Dallas Mavericks for the final play-in spot in the Western Conference.
“I told the guys, man, we should not focus on the big picture,” Durant said. “Everything should be right in the moment. That’s what we focus on. The next possession should be the most important. We would love to say that this win is going to ignite us and push us to win some in a row and have a storybook ending of us going to [playoffs]. All that stuff, it sounds good to say, but for us it’s about the next possession, next day matters.
“We can’t focus too far down the line because we don’t got that luxury to do that. So stay in the moment as much as we can, enjoy where we are and put your best effort in that moment and see what happens.”
